LC Z43 



Hollinger Corp. 
pH8.5 






•PUS 



George Peabody and the Work 
of the Peabody Fund. 



AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY 

HON. HOKE SMITH, ATLANTA, GA. 

BEFORE THE 

SOUTHERN EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

HELD AT 

ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 
DECEMBER 30th and 31st 1903, and JANUARY 1st 1904. 



HACKNEY & MOALE CO. 
ASHEVILLE, N. C. 



\ 



' 



By tnuaifar 



vsia 



?4 






George Peabody and the Work of the 
Peabody Fund. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

It is not my purpose tonight to present an eulogy upon 
George Peabody, but I desire that the people of the South 
should know more of his simple life and his wonderful 
deeds — more of the man who declared education to be " a 
debt due from present to future generations," and who, 
above all others combined, paid that debt for us. Words 
of praise are not equal to the bare record of his deeds. 

George Peabody was born February 18, 1795, at Danvers, 
Mass. He obtained the limited education his parents could 
afford from the common schools of the parish during the 
years 1803 to 1807, inclusive. But, to use his own language, 
" To the principles there inculcated, he owed much of the 
foundation for such success as Heaven was pleased to grant 
him during a long business life." 

At the age of eleven he went to work in a country store 
in the town where he was born. In this store he worked 
until he was sixteen, when he joined a brother at Xewbury- 
port, who was engaged in the dry goods business, and by 
whom he was employed for nearly two years. The store 
of his brother was burned, and George Peabody was left 
without a position. 

He very soon obtained work with his uncle at George- 
town, and was given the place of commercial assistant. In 
the first two positions which he held it can only be said he 
manifested industry and close attention to business. In his 
work at Georgetown, though still in his teens, he began to 
display that peculiar ability which won for him his great 
success in after life. His honesty was accepted without 
question, his tact was unusual. He everywhere won friends 



and secured trade. After spending nearly two years with 
his uncle, he was offered a partnership in a wholesale! 
drapery business by Mr. Elisha Riggs. Mr. Riggs proffered 
to furnish the money, and young Peabody was to handle 
the business. The only difficulty in closing the contract 
was due to the fact that Mr. Peabody was under age. 

With tireless energy and perseverance he conducted the 
partnership of Riggs & Peabody, and he was so successful 
that in 1815 the house was moved to Baltimore, that a 
wider field might be found for their enterprise. The firm 
here engaged in a general wholesale dry goods business. 
Seven years later, so large were its operations, that branch 
houses were established in Philadelphia and New York. 
In 1830 Mr. Riggs retired, and George Peabody became the 
head of what was then one of the largest firms engaged in 
the general mercantile business in the United States. 

About eight years later he moved to London, having 
there established the banking house of George Peabody & 
Company, and for a quarter of a century thereafter he was 
actively engaged in business as the head of this firm. 

The bulk of his fortune was made through the London 
banking house. How much he accumulated at any one 
time cannot be told, for all through his successful business 
life he was constantly contributing to worthy causes. 

Phoebe A. Hamord, in her Life of George Peabody, 
records the following as the more important public gifts of 
Mr. Peabody : 



To the State of Maryland for negotiating the loan of 

$8,000,000 $ 60,000 

To the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, Md 1,500,000 

To the Southern Education Fund 3,000,000 

To Yale College 150,000 

To Harvard College 150,000 

To Peabody Academy, Massachusetts 140,000 

To Phillips Academy, Massachusetts 25,000 

To Peabody Institute, at Peabody, Mass 250,000 

To Kenyon College, Ohio 25,000 

To Memorial Church in Georgetown, Mass 100,000 

To Homes for the Poor in London 3,000,000 



To Libraries in Georgetown, Mass., and Thetford, Vt 10.000 

To Kane's Arctic Expedition 10,000 

To different Sanitary Fairs 10,000 

To unpaid moneys advanced to uphold the credit of States 40,000 



$8,470,000 



The same author, Phoebe A. Hanford, states that this 
list does not include a number of donations, ranging from 
$250 to Si, 000, extending from the year 1835 to 1869. 

At his death he left property estimated at $4,000,000. Of 
this amount, he donated $1,000,000 to charities, and divided 
the remainder among his relatives. Some time prior to 
his death, he had divided $1,500,000 among his relatives. 

To fully appreciate the extent of his generous donations, 
we must remember that he died November 4, 1869, and that 
few men had accumulated at that time an amount equal 
to the sums he gave away. 

It has been justly stated that the munificent charities 
which have made the name of George Peabody a household 
word in two hemispheres were not the promptings of 
temporary vanity or of a sudden freak of old age to win 
the applause of mankind. On the contrary, they were but 
the fulfillment of a long cherished design formed in his 
own mind more than a quarter of a century before his 
death, which had constituted his chief incentive to the 
acquisition of wealth. " His gains he sought to obtain not 
as an end, but as a means to an end ; not with a view to 
himself, but with a view to others. He held himself to be 
a debtor to his kind and his own millions were used in 
the beneficient discharge of that debt." 

Pauperism and crime aroused in him no maudlin senti- 
ment, but he sought, by the wise and earnest use of his 
fortune, to prevent either from existing. He not only gave 
freely, but he brought to bear in giving the same intelligent 
judgment as to the needs of others which had made it possi- 
ble for him to be in a position to give. 

That you may realize how fully his character was 
appreciated in two continents, I wish to call your attention 



to a few incidents which occurred shortly before his death 
and to the international recognition of his good works 
immediately following his death. 

In 1866 he was about to sail for America. The mer- 
chants and capitalists of London showed their appreciation 
by erecting a costly statue to Mr. Peabody to be placed in 
one of the squares of London. He was tendered by the 
Queen a baronetcy, and the Grand Cross of the Order of 
Bath, both of which he declined. The Queen thereupon 
expressed to him in writing the gratitude of England for the 
princely munificence by which he had sought to relieve the 
wants of the poor subjects residing in London, and, with 
assurances of her personal feeling, requested as a mark of 
appreciation that he would accept a portrait of herself. 

Upon his death, in compliance with the public wish to 
hold a funeral service in London, his body was placed in 
Westminster Abbey, and the funeral services there were 
conducted by the Bishop of London. They were attended 
by the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Foreign 
Affairs, Mr. Gladstone, the Lord Mayor, and many others. 
The stores of London closed during the funeral services. 

Mr. Peabody had designated the place of his birth as the 
place of his burial. The Queen of England furnished the 
largest and handsomest man-of-war of England, The Mon- 
arch, to convey his body to America. The Emperor of 
France detailed a French vessel, and the President of the 
United States an American vessel to accompany The 
Monarch across the Atlantic. 

By a joint resolution of Congress, and in the language of 
the resolution : " The President of the United States was 
authorized to make such preparation for the reception of 
the body of our distinguished philanthropist, as it merited 
by his glorious deeds, and in a manner commensurate with 
the justice, magnanimity, and dignity of a great people." 

The City Council of Baltimore and the Governor of 
Maryland made public acknowledgements of his great ser- 
vices to the City of Baltimore and the State of Maryland. 
The Legislature of Massachusetts declared, among other 



things, in a resolution which was passed, that Mr. Peabody 
had " won for himself the admiration of his countrymen, 
and left his life and character to future generations as the 
model of the true American citizen." 

The newspapers of both continents were rilled with 
columns of tributes to his noble life. 

Victor Hugo wrote of him : " America has reason to be 
proud of this great citizen of the world, and great brother 
of all men, George Peabody. Peabody has been a happy 
man who would suffer in all sufferings, a rich man who 
would feel the cold and hunger and thirst of the poor. Like 
Jesus Christ, he had a wound in the side. This wound was 
the misery of others. It was not blood that flowed from this 
wound ; it was gold which now came from a heart. 

" On this earth there are men of hate and men of love. 
Peabody was one of the latter. It is on the face of these 
men that we may see the smile of God." 

Louis Blanc wrote of him : " The death of so good a 
man as George Peabody proved himself to be is a calamity 
in which the whole civilized world ought to share. It was 
not the kind-hearted Republican trader who was honored by 
the fact of being consigned to rest in Westminster Abbey, 
but rather those who were considered to be worthy of 
sleeping there their last sleep, on account of their rank, not 
of their virtue." 

We may well regard the crowning work of his life to 
have been the donation of nearly $3,000,000 to the cause of 
education in the South. We should bear in mind that this 
donation came in 1866, from one whose sympathies in the 
struggle through which the nation had just passed were 
with the Union, but who at the last declared that never 
during the war or since had he allowed the contest or the 
passions engendered by it to interfere with the usual rela- 
tions and firm friendships which he had for a very large 
number of the people of the South. 

Mr. Peabody created the trust through a letter to Hon. 
Rob. C. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, and a number of 
others, selected about equally from the Northern and 



Southern States. Extracts from this letter will give the 



s j 



clearest comprehension of the trust. They are as follows 



" Gentlemen: — I beg to address you on a subject which occupied 
my mind long before I left England. I refer to the educational 
needs of those portions of our beloved and common country which 
have suffered from the destructive ravages and not less disastrous 
consequences of civil war. 

" With my advancing years, my attachment to my native land 
has but become more devoted. My hope and faith in its success- 
ful and glorious future have grown brighter and stronger: and 
now, looking forward beyond my stay on earth, as may be per- 
mitted to one who has passed the limit of three score and ten 
years, I see our country, united and prosperous, emerging from 
the clouds which still surround her, taking a higher rank among 
the nations, and becoming richer and more powerful than ever 
before. 

" But to make her prosperity more than superficial, her moral 
and intellectual development should keep pace with her material 
growth; and, in those portions of our nations to which I have 
referred, the urgent and pressing physical needs of an almost 
impoverished people must, for some years, preclude them from 
making, by unaided effort, such advances in education, and such 
progress in the diffusion of knowledge among all classes, as every 
lover of his country must earnestly desire. 

" I feel most deeply, therefore, that it is the duty and privilege 
of the more favored and wealthy portion of our nation to assist 
those who are less fortunate; and with the wish to discharge as 
far as I may be able my own responsibility in this matter, as well 
as to gratify my desire to aid those to whom I am bound by so 
many ties of attachment and regard, I give to you, gentlemen, 
most of whom have been my personal and especial friends, the 
sum of one million dollars to be by you and your successors held 
in trust, and the income thereof used and applied in your discre- 
tion for the promotion and encouragement of intellectual, moral 
or industrial education among the young of the more destitute 
portions of the Southern and Southwestern States of the Union; 
my purpose being, that the benefits intended shall be distributed 
among the entire population, without other discrimination than 
their needs and the opportunities of usefulness to them. 

"All vacancies among your number by death, resignation or 
otherwise shall be filled by your body, as soon as conveniently 
may be, and having in view an equality of representation SO far 
as regards the Northern and Southern States. 

" I furthermore give i<> you the power, in case two-thirds of 



8 



the trustees shall, at any time after the lapse of thirty years, 
deem it expedient to close this trust, and any of the funds which 
at that time shall be in the hands of yourselves and your succes- 
sors, to distribute not less than two-thirds among such educational 
or literary institutions, or for such educational purposes as may 
be determined, in the States for whose benefit the income is now- 
appointed to be used. The remainder may be distributed by the 
trustees for educational or literary purposes wherever they may 
deem it expedient. 

" In making this gift, I am aware that the fund derived from 
it can but aid the States which I wish to benefit in their own 
exertions to diffuse the blessings of education and morality; but 
if this endowment should encourage those now anxious for the 
light of knowledge and stimulate to new efforts the many good 
and noble men who cherish the high purpose of placing our great 
country foremost, not only in power, but in the intelligence and 
virtue of her citizens, it will have accomplished all that I can hope. 

" With reverent recognition of the need of the blessings of 
Almighty God upon this gift, and with the fervent prayer that, 
under His guidance, your counsels may be directed for the highest 
good of present and future generations in our beloved country, 
I am, gentlemen, with great respect, 

" Your humble servant, 

" GEORGE PEABODY." 

About a year later he visited again the United States, and 
increased by more than a million dollars the Southern Edu- 
cational Fund. In his letter communicating this second 
gift, among other things, he said : " I beg to take this 
opportunity of thanking with all my heart the people of 
the South themselves for the cordial spirit in which they 
have received this trust, and for the energetic efforts which 
they have made for carrying out the plans which have been 
proposed." 

As I have only recently become a member of the Tea- 
body Board of Trustees, I could, with no feeling of hesita- 
tion, dwell upon the great service which has been rendered 
the South through the use of the Peabody Trust. But 
you already know how, by the wise distribution of nearly 
$3,000,000 derived from this fund, public education has 
been stimulated, first, in the establishment of local systems 
in tpwns and cities, and, second, in the establishment of 
normal schools in every Southern State. 



Under the leadership of Dr. Sears, one of the noblest and 
wisest of educational statesmen, the Peabody fund came to 
the cities of the South, where no intelligent and organized 
system of education existed. Changed conditions rendered 
the private schools of ante-bellum days no longer effective. 
Funds were rarely available at once for well equipped pub- 
lic schools. The people were impoverished, and a desire for 
an increase of taxation was hardly to be expected. 

But, going from city to city, Dr. Sears furnished from 
the Peabody fund part of the money required to begin 
and conduct for one or two years public schools. Once 
inaugurated in a city, their value was so apparent that tax- 
ation sufficient for their continuance followed the period 
when the Peabody Fund ceased to contribute. 

Thus the fund was used with powerful effect, until now 
there is scarcely a village in the South of two thousand 
inhabitants without a public school system. 

I do not mean that all the credit is due to the Peabody 
Fund for this condition, but I do know that Dr. Sears, with 
the funds under his care, greatly aided to make rapid 
progress of city school development. 

Then came the time when normal schools were needed. 

Dr. Sears used the Peabody Fund to inaugurate the first 
normal school of the South, which was located by him in 
the city of Nashville. Too much credit cannot be given to 
the benefits derived throughout the South from this institu- 
tion, especially during the first twenty years of its existence. 
A very much greater proportion, however, of its scholars 
were from Tennessee than from other States, and it became 
neces^sary that local State normals should be inaugurated 
throughout the South. The Peabody funds were used freely 
to help start normal schools in most of the Southern States. 

The normal schools, like the city public schools, when 
once thoroughly established, received support from their 
respective States, so that today State normal schools in 
many of the Southern States spend more money than the 
Nashville normal school derives from the State of Ten- 
nessee and from the Peabody Board. 



10 



The public school systems of the cities and the normals 
of the States, being now thoroughly organized, what is the 
next field for great work in the South open to the use of 
the Peabody Fund ? 

It can hardly be doubted that the rural school problem 
is the serious question connected with the growth of educa- 
tional facilities for the children of the Southern States. The 
rural districts are sparsely settled, and separate schools must 
be provided for the two races. 

How is the expense to be borne of furnishing suitable 
school facilities with sufficient teachers in reach of scholars 
so numerous as to justify the expenditure? 

At present most of the rural schools last but five months 
in the year. A competent teacher cannot be expected to 
engage in one-half a year's work with no position open for 
the other half of the year. The schools must be conducted 
for the full school year. The children must be brought 
together so that more than one teacher can be engaged in 
each school. Rural graded schools are as necessary as 
similar schools in the cities. The problem must be worked 
out, and the tax payers must, by experience, be brought to 
desire their maintenance. 

Four-fifths of the children of the South live in rural sec- 
tions. The undeveloped agricultural resources of the South 
are almost limitless. The cotton product alone will bring 
during the present year nearly $700,000,000. The yield 
from diversified products will be measured only by the 
intellectual development of the children of the section. 

Here I think is offered the great opportunity to meet 
the future for much of the income from the Peabody Fund. 
It can be used in the rural school work as it was formerly 
used by Dr. Sears in the city school work, and a harvest 
fully as rich with beneficent results is assured. 

I do not mean that the contributions are to be withdrawn 
from the normal schools of the States, but I do mean that 
the time has passed when a necessity exists to pay scholars 
to attend a normal school outside of their own state, when 
a normal of their own State is within their reach at far 



11 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



020 783 363 



less expense. The fund heretofore used in connection with 
the Nashville normal to pay the expenses of that school of 
scholars from other States can be used with great effect to 
help push on the work of rural schools. Part of the fund, 
perhaps, might be used with wisdom to investigate and 
determine how best a practical system of industrial educa- 
tion can be introduced into the rural schools of the South, 
for no school can accomplish its highest service which does 
not have in view the practical training of children for active 
work in their proper spheres of life. 

May I not call upon the educators before me from all 
parts of the South to carry this view into your work, 
whether you be engaged in rural or city schools ; whether 
you be engaged in graded schools, high schools or colleges? 
What the South needs above all else is men specially 
trained to handle the various opportunities for development 
which the untouched resources of the section offer. 

I do not criticise the earnest desire of the instructor to 
educate a pupil to be a man, noble and generous, but I do 
urge that the boys of the South be educated to do acts noble, 
generous and useful. 

If the criticism is made that I am urging the material in 
education, and that the classical is necessary to develope 
the highest type of manhood, I need not enter into argu- 
ment to refute the charge. I only reply that I will wait 
to argue the question until my opponent «will point out to 
me some' one brought up under the inspiring influences of 
the highest classics who presents a standard of manhood 
equal to the noble character of the man to whose life I have 
briefly referred tonight, the benefactor of the human race, 
and especially the benefactor of the children of the South, 
George Peabody. 



12 



020 783 363 



Hollinger Corp. 
pH8.5 



\ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



020 783 363 



Hollinger Corp. 
pH8.5 



